The Uganda Volleyball Cranes may have failed to land a ticket to the All Africa Games but they have a lot of positives to pick from the outing.
Uganda defeated Rwanda 3-1 for their only win at the Zone 5 championship held in Nairobi last week.
"The target was to qualify for the All Africa Games but we fell short. There are positives to look at though and I think there is progress," head coach Nason Bwesigye revealed after the tournament.
Having lost their opening two matches to hosts Rwanda and eventual champions Egypt, Uganda regrouped to defeat neighbours Rwanda 3-1 in the last match.
“Every time, Rwanda has been beating us by a whisker but we have always been bridging the gap,” noted Bwesigye.
"We have shown that our time has come, 15 years is such a long time.”
Bwesigye has referred to the group of players he has as the golden generation that has to be supported to ensure they achieve something with the national team.
The team, captained by locally based George Aporu, boasts of four professionals with three plying their trade in Europe.
Daudi Okello, Cathbert Malinga and Ivan Ongom have all enjoyed time in Europe and give the team the required experience of
high intensity volleyball.
It is also a blend of the young and the experienced guard.
Youngsters like setter Moses Odeke, centre blocker Sam Egau, Libero Elias Isiagi and receiver Johnson Rukundo all got a chance and are seen as a big part of the team going forward.
Uganda finish second with four points, below leaders Egypt who qualified for the All Africa Games set in Morocco.
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Egypt earned their ticket to Morocco in the 2019 All Africa Games after beating Kenya 3-1 in the last game to compete a clean sweep.
Results
Kenya 3-2 Uganda (22-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-12)
Egypt 3-1 Uganda (25-17, 15-25, 25-14, 25-20)
Uganda 3-1 Rwanda (25-23, 28-26, 18-25, 35-33)
Table:
Egypt – 9 pts
Uganda – 4
Rwanda – 3
Kenya – 2
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